


win or lose (everything or nothing)

by malignance



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst?, F/M, idk if it's angst but it certainly isn't happy slkdjg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:00:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22427467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malignance/pseuds/malignance
Summary: Mal takes (and takes, and takes). Evie is angry (and schemes, and schemes, and schemes).
Relationships: Ben/Evie (Disney: Descendants), Evie & Uma (Disney)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	win or lose (everything or nothing)

Evie is six. 

The Isle is dirt and grime and darkness, yet she remains untouched, flowers and sweetness and smiles. She is a product of isolation, of secret, quiet lessons taught behind too thin walls and peeling wallpaper. Her mother holds onto a reality that doesn't exist anymore, where the chandeliers in the hallways are lit, where the ballroom is alive, where the castle is whole. But Evie knows the castle is not what it used to be, knows that her mother isn't who she used to be, and knows more than anything else that even though she can cook and sew and clean and curtsy, there is no prince to appreciate those efforts.

Carlos is five and a half.

He is skin and bone, eyes and feet shifting fast to dodge, to run, to hide. His mother is anger, screaming and yelling and eyes flashing with a wild kind of fire that he sees even when he sleeps. She speaks to herself when she thinks he is asleep, of a history that she swears to erase, of creatures she swears to steal and devour. "Those damn dogs." She says, over and over, and Carlos learns to fear _those damn dogs_ before he learns anything else.

"Pardon me-"

"Sorry-"

They meet when Evie stumbles in her steps (she hadn't yet mastered wearing and walking in the high heels her mother had instructed her to wear) when they pass by each other, her body knocking into his as they both tumble over.

The apologies die on both their lips as they realise where they are (nobody apologises on the Isle, nobody is polite on the Isle), and they scramble to their feet with an almost panicked speed. But as she takes him in (his frail body, his tired eyes, his shaking hands), she feels for a moment like she'd been looking in a mirror. So she smiles, something small and shy, but turns into a full blown grin when he shoots his own smile back.

*

Mal is everything the Isle wanted her to be. Tough and sour and forceful. She walks with a distinctive kind of darkness, a shadow Maleficent has crafted and tended to so carefully. Mal is born a monster of the dark, bred a creature of evil, but she is good too. She is good at being bad, she is good at being dangerous, she is good at being exactly who her mother wanted her to be, she is good at being better than everyone else. 

Evie knows she cannot possibly beat her, so she can only watch, helplessly, with a tight lipped smile, as Carlos is whisked right out of her arms by a great big purple plume of smoke.

(The way Mal had looked at her then, smug little smirk on her mouth, as she had stolen Carlos from right under her nose, makes Evie tremble with such a fury she had never experienced before.)

*

Jay waltzes in, unexpected, tries to charm Evie long enough to snatch the pendant from around her neck, only to find himself missing a couple things instead.

"Nice try, thief."

"Well played, Blue."

Evie had known about Jay, about his crooked smile and handsome face, and penchant for taking things that weren't his. She'd listen sometimes when girls would sigh his name, sometimes in frustration, sometimes in adoration, and lapped up those stories almost hungrily. This was someone she could have, she thought. It didn't bother her much that he seemed oddly fixated on lamps (there had been rumours about that too, but she hadn't paid those much mind), or that he could disappear for days on end and she could never seem to find him when she looked for him, she liked the way he smiled just a bit wider when she neared, she liked the warmth of annoyance and fondness he sparked in her, she liked that she felt safe with him.

( _It'll be different this time,_ she thought.)

*

But Mal was the same as always, sneaky and scheming and _unfair,_ so Evie finds herself watching as he too, is taken from her.

(She walks in one day on them, Jay leaning over her in that dominating way he likes to do when he's around a girl he finds pretty, Mal grinning up at him like nothing he could say would convince her to fall for his sugar coated words.

It hits Evie suddenly, with a force she hadn't expected, because that was _her_ place, that was where she stood, brushing off his advances and laughing at his attempts to woo her.

And then Mal had snatched it from her hands, looked over his shoulder, right into Evie's eyes, and bared her teeth.)

Evie reawakens that fury she had thought she buried, and plots.

*

Uma is complicated, but necessary. She's bark _and_ bite, testy and moody and sharp bloody teeth. Evie would've been scared, once upon a time. But she'd been hearing about how Mal and Uma had all but sworn each other enemies, and decided that her fears would need to be put on hold. So she walks into Uma's territory, holds her head up high, and pretends her heart isn't hammering behind her chest in protest.

"I want to see Mal crash and burn."

"...I'm listening."

It's not as much a friendship as it is an alliance. Uma listens with an amused expression on her face as Evie breathes fire, hisses in low tones about how she hates Mal and wants revenge, wants nothing but to see Mal hurt the way she had been, angry the way she had been. She doesn't know the reasons for the way Uma and Mal's relationship deteriorated, she doesn't ask. But she recognises that look in her eyes, the fury, the bitterness, the wrath, knows that her own face mirrors that very same heat, and figures it doesn't matter _why,_ it just matters that they feel the same.

*

Mal can step nowhere near this, nowhere near her and Uma, and Evie feels triumphant for once, that she cannot taint this somehow, steal this away from her.

She feels the first cogs of her plan slip into place.

*

She gets the letter, the invitation, and before she lets herself get excited by the prospect of _finally_ getting off the Isle, she thinks about how she can fit it into her plan. She thinks about how she can use this against Mal (who she knows has also gotten a letter), how she can use this to her advantage. 

She tells Uma about the letter first, lets her rant and rave about it, about how nobody on the other side actually cares, and why it had taken them so long to finally do something about it. Evie can see behind the anger, she can see the envy, the hurt, the tiny, tiny flicker of hope. She makes Uma a promise, that she'll try and bring her over too, and Uma looks so caught off guard for a moment Harry actually chokes on a laugh beside her. She promises to bring them all over, if she can, and she wonders if they'll think she's foolish for saying so, for offering that type of kindness so frankly, so openly. 

(But Uma had smiled at her, before she turned and left, something real and genuine and not like any of her previous little smirks and grins, and Evie thought she wouldn't regret a single thing.)

Mal finds out Evie has received a ticket to Auradon too, and grabs her by the hand and pushes her into her hideout before Evie can stop to think about it.

"We need to stick together now. My mother has a plan, and stupid petty little feuds isn't going to help. So, let's put the past behind us, okay?"

"Yeah, okay."

Evie grits her teeth, anger rolling off her in such big waves it's a wonder that Mal doesn't pick up on it. _Stupid petty little feuds,_ she had said. Evie wanted nothing more than to tear Mal's head off with her bare hands. Mal had stolen from her, taken what was hers, and now she was demanding things from her, telling her to _forget and let go._ She wonders if Mal realises it will only make Evie hold on that much tighter to her anger, her plan, her hatred. 

Evie knows too, that Mal will be able to forget so easily, act as if they'd been friends from the beginning in a second, because it had never meant that much to her. It was just a game, and Evie had been fooled into it, into being the loser.

(But then, as Mal mentions that Jay and Carlos had also received invitations, as everything suddenly fits so perfectly into her well crafted plans, Evie resolves to show Mal that the game had _never_ ended, and that she would never accept being anything but the victor.)

*

Maleficent's plan barely crosses Evie's mind. She is busy working on her own, one that she'll complete whether the barrier goes down or not.

She pretends though, when they're looking, that she's a little scared, a little worried. When they all pile into the limo, she makes her lower lip tremble, paints on the picture of _here is a lost little girl,_ and almost immediately Carlos is reaching his hand out to her, holding her fingers in his, trying to comfort her with his flesh and his smile. She should've known Carlos would be a sucker for the big doe eyes and pouty lips. It surprises her a little too, how she actually draws comfort from his presence beside her. Though she had told herself this was all in the name of revenge, all for payback, she wonders if maybe a part of her had done this just because she'd missed them, missed Carlos and their easy friendship, missed Jay and their playful companionship.

(It doesn't matter, she decides. Two birds with one stone, and all that.)

When they step out of the car, and onto Auradon soil for the first time, Evie watches as Ben and Mal exchange not so subtle sparks, and takes note as Audrey seethes from beside them. She feels a little for Audrey then, because she knew what it was like for Mal to take something of hers (and she knows too it's only a matter of time before she'd steal Ben too), and wonders if she should think about making an ally in her as well, like she did with Uma.

(But Audrey proves later that just because they have a common enemy, it does not mean they can be friends.)

*

They're new, and horribly out of place, but they make do. They acclimate.

Most of them do.

Evie does, because she's smart, and finds easy company in other girls who appreciate the same things she does, shoes and dresses and make up. Jay does, because he's always been malleable, and fits in like a missing puzzle piece within the tourney team. Carlos does, because he wants to, and finds a surprising kinship with a dog. Mal doesn't, because she doesn't think she needs to, and continues to stick out like a sore thumb.

"What does it matter anyway? The barrier's going to go down, I don't need to pretend to be someone I'm not for these people."

Evie thinks it a shame, that Mal had been so smart back on the Isle, and now any traces of that fearful leader of a girl was nowhere to be seen. Mal practices her spells behind a locked door, tries to figure out a way to break the barrier on her own, all the while Evie and Jay and Carlos, they live in Auradon, they adapt. Evie goes to every single one of Jay's tourney games (and he pretends he doesn't need to see her there, but lights up when he spots her cheering for him on the bleachers anyway), joins Carlos on his walks with Dude (and he says she doesn't need to accompany him if she's busy, but beams at her when she shows up at six am on the dot without fail every morning anyway).

Winning them back is almost too easy, and Evie frowns a little at her plan, at how she'd made precautions and footnotes just incase something didn't work out.

(And the worst part, perhaps, was that Mal didn't even seem to care that Jay and Carlos were always with Evie but never with her. She had her spellbook and her plan and Evie had started to feel angry all over again at how it didn't even _matter,_ that her revenge plan had all but fallen through, because what was the point of it all if Mal didn't _mind_?)

But then, Mal suggests the love potion for Ben, and Evie starts to craft an entirely different plan.

*

Mal works on the recipe, on the love spell, and Evie seeks Ben out while no one's looking.

He greets her with a polite distance, open but closed off at the same time. She talks about Uma, about how she has someone she had left behind to be here, about how she'd like for her to get an opportunity to come to Auradon too. She spins this tale of a childhood they never shared, of two girls who forged a bond so strong nothing could break them apart, and about how leaving her behind had split her heart in two. She fakes the tears too, lets her eyes turn glassy at a history that wasn't hers, and sniffles a bit when she looks up to him, pleading with her eyes, to _please, please consider bringing more kids from the Isle over!_

He looks at her with shock, as if he hadn't expected her to _feel_ so much. He takes in how lost she seems, how fragile she looks, and tells her he'll try, that he wants nothing more for everybody to get the same opportunity, just that he needed to convince everyone else it was a good idea first. She wipes at her tears, nods in understanding, and beams (if there's a part of her that had actually _missed_ Uma, and looked forward to possibly having the girl in her company again, she wouldn't admit it). He falters at the look of pure delight on her face (she'd been expecting this, had been perfecting the expression for days), seemingly awestruck by her, by knowing that she cared so much for the people she had left behind, by how her beauty had- for a moment- completely caught him off guard.

"If you need anything, please let me know! This, really, really means a lot to me so if I could be a part of it in any way, I'd love to help."

"That would be great, Evie. Maybe you could get me a list?"

*

Ben eats the cookie, falls pathetically head over heels in love with Mal, and Evie watches on with a shine in her eyes.

(Mal gets ready for the first date, nervous and looking very much like the teenage girl she was for the first time.

Evie meanwhile, goes to form connections.)

It's all too easy for Evie to wrap Doug around her finger and get him to tutor her. She picks it all up easy, and it doesn't take long at all for her to become a star student, all good grades and sweet smiles and pretty eyes. If Audrey had been popular for her mean streaks and status, Evie is for all the opposites. Evie becomes known for her smartness, her kindness, her patience and her talent. Where her lineage and background had dragged her down before, it had only seemed to bolster her now, like her tortured and tragic past made her all the more amazing.

(She feels empty and alone most days, even as she smiles and waves and thrives. She crawls into Carlos' bed at night because it all becomes too much, and drags Jay off to go swimming in the middle of the day because she needs just a little bit of peace, and it has nothing to do with Mal anymore.)

When she's sure the talk of her reputation has reached the Fairy Godmother's ears, she goes to speak with her. She smiles, all innocent and happy and simple, and asks if she can help her contact someone from the Isle.

"There's this friend I have. Her name is Uma, and I really do miss her. Would it be possible for me to get a letter out to her?"

"Oh, well... if it's just one letter I suppose there's no harm in it!"

Evie flashes her signature, winning smile, and thrusts a letter into the Fairy Godmother's hands.

(She doesn't trust that Fairy Godmother won't read over her letter, so she makes sure to write what she really wants to tell Uma in code, and only hopes she'll be able to figure it out amidst all the pointless chatter about what Evie had experienced since she arrived.)

*

Mal starts actually falling in love with Ben, and Evie thinks it's all just... typical. 

Ben seems to have somehow made Mal want to be a genuinely _good_ person, not the kind of good that used to scare Evie and inspire her at the same time, but the kind of good that everyone at Auradon was expected to be, and Evie finds herself disappointed. But then Mal had walked in one day, tried to spend time with her as if they were actual friends, and suddenly she was angry all over again. Angry that it had taken Ben of all people for Mal to decide to want to befriend Evie, angry that Mal thought she could just suddenly start treating Evie like she cared about her and that she'd just forget everything Mal had done to her before.

(Then, Mal had started seeking out Jay and Carlos again, and Evie's anger had shifted to blinding fury.

She had no claim to them anymore, not after she'd abandoned and forgotten them as soon as they set foot on Auradon.

Evie has such a hatred for everything, for Mal, for how the fates seem to bend their will to her whenever she wished, for how Evie seemed to keep losing every battle, for how she seemed to slip further and further into nothingness the more this dragged on.)

Her plan has to work. It's all she has now, it's all she can cling onto.

*

She doesn't know how Ben's managed it, but he broke the love spell somehow, Evie can tell.

She watches with narrowed eyes as Mal leans up to kiss him, only for him to stiffen for a moment, before leaning in to give her what she wanted. That moment of hesitation is easy to miss, but Evie's been watching closely for so long, she catches that second for what it is- uncertainty, unwillingness. He looks trapped, and Evie grins at how much simpler this would all be for her now.

When Mal is busy stressing about the coronation, battling with herself about what she should do, Evie slips into Ben's office unnoticed.

She slides the list she'd made over to him, and smiles a little to herself when he looks over it with a start. She pleads her case (even though she knows she doesn't need to), talks about how she loves her life in Auradon and that she only wishes everybody else could experience it too, that they be given a chance like she was, that she feels responsible because she had left them behind and thrived while they went on with their dismal lives, unchanged.

(He looks at her appraisingly, and she wonders if he's comparing her to Mal, if he's wondering why she's here pleading for her friends while Mal seems to have forgotten all about the Isle. She wonders if he thinks her better, if he thinks her kinder, sweeter, _prettier_.)

"I think people might be more inclined to agree now, actually. We've all seen how well you're doing in classes, and how great Jay is with the tourney team, I think using you both as examples would really help your case. I know you feel really passionately about this, so I'll make sure to tell you if there's any progress."

"Thank you so much! Not just for this, but, for bringing us over in the first place too. I'm sure you're going to make a great king, Ben."

They talk for the rest of the afternoon. She smiles and flutters her lashes and he pretends it doesn't affect him. She talks about her life on the Isle, and doesn't need to fake the way she gets choked up when she mentions her mother (he reaches his hand out to place over hers, and she hates that, for a split second, she feels guilty for using him, for pulling him away from Mal for her own gain). He tells her about his childhood growing up in Auradon, in a castle, his worries of becoming king, his concerns for the future of his kingdom, his people. She sings him praises and assurances, and surprises herself by actually believing most of them. He eats them up with a wide smile, and starts looking at her with this sparkle in his eye that she almost doesn't recognise.

(He looks like he's falling in love with her. She almost wishes he wasn't.)

*

In the end, Maleficent doesn't stand a chance against love.

Mal doesn't even move an inch when the wand comes out, and the coronation ends without a hitch. Jay and Carlos breathe a sigh of relief, but the coil in Evie's stomach just tightens. She doesn't see the wand at all, just Mal and Ben. Mal, who looks for the most part like she was on top of the world. And Ben, who looks-

(Ben, who looks up at _her,_ who smiles at _her._ )

Then, as people start shuffling out, as Jay runs over to his teammates, as Carlos walks out to let Dude relieve himself, Evie stays firmly seated. She watches as Mal and Ben linger below, as she shoves a cupcake into his hands, as Ben talks to her with a frown on his face, eyebrows drawn together like he was pained. She knows he's telling her that he _knew,_ that he knew he had been spelled, that he had took the spell off somehow, that he forgives her but doesn't love her.

Mal's face crumples, eyes shining with unshed tears, heart break written clear on her features.

Evie should feel vindicated. Evie should feel victorious. Evie should feel-

(Evie should feel something, shouldn't she? But she thinks about her life here instead, about how she'll have to continue playing up the act of the perfect pure Evie for the rest of her life, about how she'll have to pretend she's in love with Ben, about how she has everything but nothing at the same time, and all it does is make her want to throw up.)

*

Mal is miserable, drifting to and fro as if without an anchor, distanced from everyone and isolated. It's not on purpose. She'd just never bothered to make any friends, so no one approaches her, no one talks. Jay and Carlos had realised she never truly cared for them from the moment they set foot in Auradon, so they'd stayed away too. Ben, who was now kissing Evie and holding Evie's hand, had never really forgiven Mal for spelling him, so he keeps his distance. Evie, who'd been hurt by Mal before, doesn't look at her anymore because she hates her (but there is nobody she hates now more than herself).

Uma arrives just in time to witness Mal at her worst, and she grins something so sinister and looks at her with such pride that Evie almost thinks it's worth it (almost).

"You've broken her."

"And I've lost myself in the process."

**Author's Note:**

> lemme analyse my own fic for a second.... so... mal starts out the obvious bad guy/antagonist, but as time goes on she genuinely starts to want to be a good person, while evie is slowly like losing herself to this revenge plan and spiralling because she's so fixated on hurting mal that it starts to mess her up a lil. and then by the end mal is hurt yes, but she learnt to be a good person through ben, meanwhile evie has everything she wanted from the beginning, but feels more twisted than before and doesn't know if she can even truly enjoy the "win" because she feels so confused and guilty about everything now. 
> 
> and i've never really written a fic where the ending wasn't clearly like... happy or optimistic so it felt kinda weird that at the end it was just like, she has everything she wants but is also kinda sad??? anyway! if it felt weird to any of yall pls lmk???


End file.
